Casinos are a mix of electronic gaming machines (e.g., slot machines) and live casino games (e.g., craps). Over the past ten years or so, electronic gaming machines have encroached on the floor space allocated to live casino games. The reasons for the increased popularity of the electronic gaming machines are many, including ease of tracking play, low overhead costs and profitability. However, many gamblers do not enjoy the solitude and “pure luck” associated with electronic gaming machines. Therefore, live games of chance are always a good compliment to the electronic gaming devices. One such live game of chance is craps.
Craps is a dice game predicated on the sum of two rolled dice. Craps is one of the most exciting live casino games found on a casino floor. It is not uncommon to hear yelling and shouting at a craps table. The craps table can accommodate up to about 20 players, who are each given the opportunity to throw or shoot the dice. If a player does not want to throw the dice, they are passed to next player in a clockwise fashion. Several types of bets can be made on the craps table layout. Craps table personnel consists of a stickman, boxman and two dealers. The first roll of the dice in a betting round is called the come out roll—a new game in craps begins with the come out roll. On a come out roll, a 7 or 11 is a pass line winner; 2, 3 or 12 are pass line losers and 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 are points. A come out roll is a first roll at a newly opened table, made after a shooter fails to establish a point or once a player rolls a 7 after establishing a point and before re-rolling the point. If the current shooter does make his point, the dice are returned to him and he then begins a new game with a new come out roll. This is a continuation of that shooter's roll, although technically, the come out roll begins a new craps game. When the shooter fails to make his or her point, the dice are then offered to the next player for a new come out roll and a new game begins. The dice are rolled across the craps table layout. The layout is divided into three areas—two side areas separated by a center one. Each side area is the mirror reflection of the other and contains the following: Pass and Don't Pass line bets, Come and Don't Come bets, Odds bet, Place bets and Field bets. The center area is shared by both side areas and contains the Proposition bets.
The excitement of a craps game builds as a player continues to roll the dice after establishing a point. Therefore, the yelling and shouting become more apparent as the player continues to roll the dice. This is because players stand to make more money the longer the shooter holds the dice. For example, players tend to place bets on many numbers and increase the bets as the shooter continues to roll the dice successfully. Indeed, players at a craps table shower praise and encourage good shooters. In other words, the environment, in most instances, pits the commonly aligned players against the casino.
Unfortunately, other than analyzing the yelling and the shouting, there is no way of knowing how well a shooter is doing during his or her roll. That is, players often tell stories of the shooter who held the dice 45 minutes or the shooter who hit 15 points. While the stories may be true, few know for certain.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a system of tracking craps game outcomes including an electronic display in proximity to a craps table such that roll outcomes may be displayed. Also, the display should be able to track and display any desired game data such as an amount of time dice are held by as a shooter.